The Running Football Player

August 27th, 2009

Good news! My leg’s getting better, and now I can run with it. Now I just need to get a little bit better so I can tackle. Today I decided it would be best if I didn’t tackle yet, but I did all the drills I could do.

While I watched the plays that I couldn’t do, I did crunches (well, I did used my arms a bit, which you’re not supposed to do), and push-ups. I am pretty sure that I did around 100 “crunches” and probably over 100 push-ups spread out over the course of practice. That’s quite a few. Well, I really need to tackle tomorrow, or I’ll have no experience when it comes time to play in the scrimmage on Saturday. I’ll write again tomorrow!

The Healing Football Player

August 26th, 2009

Today my injury, which Uncle Doctor Bob said was a minor knee sprain, was much better. He gave me an adjustment, and I’m sure that’s helping. Although I still unable to run, I can jog, as long as I don’t stretch my left leg much. I was able to do the warm-ups, the reminders (ten Up-Downs) at the end. If all goes well, I might be able to actually start hitting tomorrow in time for some practice so I’m ready for Saturday, when we scrimmage North Saint Paul, and maybe more teams (I can’t remember).

The Watching Football Player

August 25th, 2009

So today I stayed out of the practice today after that leg problem I got yesterday. It was kind of uncomfortable to just watch everyone else work while I just walked around, not really exerting myself, since I couldn’t run. I did get to be the quarterback for a running play drill, where I passed the ball of to a running back. All in all, today wasn’t very hard, just a tad uncomfortable.

The Bruised Football Player

August 24th, 2009

Today wasn’t that great. We started hitting, and my first hit, which happened to be done by a bigger sophomore then this small freshman. He rammed into me, and I toppled over, hit the ground and rolled… and even that wouldn’t have been that bad if I hadn’t landed on my left leg incorrectly, which generously gave me an injury that keeps me from running, at least for today. On top of that, I couldn’t seem to catch anything today. Yep, today wasn’t my favorite day.

The Spared Football Player

August 20th, 2009

Thank goodness for rain! Today the coaches were planning to have us start hitting, and as I said yesterday, I was very nervous about ramming into people and being knocked around by other players. Fortunately, it was rainy today, and we practiced indoors once again. We ran through some plays, and learned how to tackle properly. Good news: I am feeling a bit more confident when it comes to the plays.

The only problem with today was the conditioning. Ow! Today was the first day we’ve done conditioning for football practice, and it really hurt. We had to run around for a while, then Coach Lark told us to do 20 push-ups, then 20 sit-ups, three times with our shoulder pads and helmets on. Wow, that was the hardest I’ve worked in a long time. Tomorrow, the plan is to start hitting, and I am a bit uneasy with that general thought. I’ll write about how that goes after practice tomorrow.

The Bushed Football Player

August 19th, 2009

Here is the first podcast for my mini-blog, “Kenny Plays Football”! Enjoy!

   

The Forgetful Football Player

August 19th, 2009

Hey everyone. Today’s practice went pretty good. I missed the ball a few times, but nothing very big. I felt more comfortable, and I feel like I know a little more about the sport each day.

On the first day of practice, all the coaches told us all to wear a Concordia t-shirt to practice from tomorrow (today) and on. I was wearing one the day of the announcement, and I must not have locked that bit into my memory as well as I could have. The next day (today), a few friends came over, and we occupied ourselves until we had to leave for practice. If I had had more time by myself I would have realized that I needed to wear a Concordia shirt. Coach Orich (I’m sorry if I spelled your name wrong) told me,

“You’d better bring one tomorrow, or you’re dead meat, and I’m a meat grinder.”

Other than that mistake and a few blunders throughout the day, I’d say practice wasn’t that bad, especially considering that practice was more than an hour short today. Visit again tomorrow for another update.

The Hesitant Football Player

August 18th, 2009

Hey everyone. This is the 1st post on my new blog, which I’ll use to cover how my 1st football season at Concordia Academy is going, when games will be, how practices went, etc.

Today was hard. I know that compared to the endurance camp that a few of my friends did it wasn’t very tough, but for me, it was, seeing as I haven’t been training myself as much as them.

If you don’t know already, I am a complete novice when it comes to this sport. With that in mind, it’s natural for me to say that I felt very stupid at times during the practice today and the football camp I took several weeks ago.

I was very hesitant to try football, but I decided I would give it a shot, and here I am. Nothing extremely noteworthy happened today other than the fact that it is my first practice. I assume that I’ll be playing Wide Receiver and D-Back if I’m not mistaken.

I am not very excited about practice tomorrow, but I’m going to be there. I will post again tomorrow, so visit the site then.

“You’ve got to be a football hero…”

August 17th, 2009

Well, I’ve been thinking about it for a while, and I’ve finally decided to play football for Concordia Academy for my freshman year in high school. I’m an utter novice when it comes to the sport, however, and I am expecting many stupid feelings when I mess up or something silly that I didn’t know was silly until I was told so. I am glad, however, that I went to the four-day football camp that Concordia offered over the summer, or I would feel very uneasy.

Several people have asked me if I am excited, and I must say that I am not. But at least I am giving it a try, and if I don’t like it, I don’t have to play it next year. That’s a motivator by itself, or so it seems at the beginning of the season.

Today I had my first practice, and… well, you can read about my first year of football on the new blog I created tonight. My dad said that it would be a fun idea to write a blog about how each practice is, how games go, and so on. I thought it was a great idea, and so now, if you go to kennyplaysfootball.wordpress.com, you’ll be able to read all about how the season is going! Pretty neat, huh?

Well, I hope you enjoy not one, but TWO blogs by me from now on. Don’t worry; “Kenny Plays Football” won’t replace “Kenny Martin’s Blog.” It’s simply a blog for the use of updating people on how my 1st football season is going. In fact, we’ll consider “Kenny Plays Football” as a mini-blog: an addition to this blog. I hope you like it!

By The Way, The Piano Plays Itself

August 17th, 2009

Last Sunday at church my youth group ran the service! Peter Paul preached, me, Cody Pratorius, Paul Carlson, and James Paul were ushers, Paul Lessner worked the sound booth, Andrew Paul played the trumpet for the closing him, and the all the girls in the youth group who were there led worship while Joshua Lerud played guitar. Other than ushering, I added a bit of comedy to the service. We needed prelude music, music that would play while people came in and found their seats. I volunteered to play the piano for the prelude, which is an inside joke in the youth group.

The piano in our church has the capability to record how a song is played by which keys and pedals are pressed, so that it can play back the song without anyone playing! It’s really cool to watch. So if the Mrs. Lerud can’t make it to church to play the piano, my dad, the sound guy, tells his son, me, to push some buttons on the piano, which plays the songs we need. Some of my friends said that I should pretend to be playing the piano, and that’s what I did last Sunday.

I sat down on the piano bench, pushed some buttons, and began “playing” the piano. I tried to make it look sort of believable, but I simply couldn’t resist playing with one hand while turning the music I was “reading” upside-down. Paul Lessner said that he heard some people saying things like this to each other,

“Is he really playing that?”

“That kid is pretty good.”

One person said to me afterwards that they actually thought I was playing until I flipped the music upside-down. Well, I hope that clears up my unclear status update on Facebook, and as to the youth group, good job! We did a great job, I think God worked through us, and we should do that again! It was fun!